Ari Ezra Waldman is a 2002 graduate of Harvard College and a 2005 graduate of Harvard Law School. After practicing in New York for five years and clerking at a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., Ari is now on the faculty at California Western School of Law in San Diego, California. His areas of expertise are criminal law, criminal procedure, LGBT law and law and economics. Ari will be writing weekly posts on law and various LGBT issues.
Follow Ari on Twitter at @ariezrawaldman.
The last amendment in the Bill of Rights sounds simple: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” It is pretty clear that this clause was animated by the anti-Federalist concern about a strong central government and the amendment’s inclusion in the Bill of Rights was central to gaining enough votes to ratify the Constitution. It is also clear that this clause is less protective of states’ rights than its predecesor in the Articles of Confederation and the Framer’s decision to include broad language in Article I — the section that grants powers to Congress — belies the simple anti-government meme.
The 10th Amendment has become increasingly important in legal circles over the last thirty years, as conservative scholars have sought constitutional bulwarks against the welfare state and social legislation. It is not surprising, then, that the 10th Amendment figures into LGBT law, specifically with regard to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
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